5 food habits that mean you are nearly Irish

Since Paddy's Day is just around the corner, what better time than now to reflect on those little food habits, small nuggets of infectious Irishness that make us, foreigners, become a little bit more Irish as time goes by.

12 years since I first landed in Dublin, straight out of college, many things have changed in the country. Looking at the following list, I realise I have also done a fair bit of changing myself!...  

-Lasagne and chips
Coming from 'The Continent', the first impression when encountering lasagne with chips on a menu is of horror. Surely pasta doesn't need any additional carbs...or does it? 12 years on, I wouldn't have it any other way...

-Cheese and onion crisps
Cheese and onion Taytos are probably the biggest export from Irish mammies to their offsprings in
Australia but to the non-Irish crisp lover the first impression when coming across cheese and onion
crisps can be condensed in one word: gross! Where are the plain old-fashion ready salted crisps? With time and practice, we’ve learnt to love them too, of course. Salt and vinegar are still far
superior though… which takes me to the next thing…

-Vinegar on chips
To a foreigner, it is weird enough this obsession of eating chips on their own, but surely, we've all been quickly converted to the humble bag of chips too, but with salt and vinegar? That might have disgusted you 10 years ago. Not anymore.

-A good cuppan tae agus baine
As a rule of thumb, Galicians don’t put milk in their tea. Not that they drink much tea to start with.
But if tea must be drunk, it will be a light watery concoction with lemon and sugar in it. Outrageous,
isn’t it? I agree… nothing beats a good cuppa agus baine. And there is nothing that couldn't be solved (or nearly) with a cup of tea. A few years back I would have added 5 teaspoons of sugar to it though.

-Dinner for breakfast or breakfast for dinner?
To be honest, breakfast is one thorny issue the Irish and southern continentals are never going to
agree on. Some rather have a rashers sambo at 7 in the morning, the others would prefer to stick to
a coffee or Cola Cao and a piece of lemon drizzle cake. Two different philosophies. Both acceptable.
Likely to cause trouble? Yes. If you are coming to Ireland just stick a few Cola Cao sachets in your
case. If you are heading to Galicia, you might need to bring a few sausages on the sly.

The one thing I still haven't manage to embrace? the yuk crème eggs... some things are just a step too far.

And to finish off, since it is virtually impossible to end a phone conversation in Ireland with just one single 'goodbye'... It is a 'Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye...' for now...

Happy St Patrick's Day! wherever you are, and whatever you are munching!

Ah the good weather!

Ah, the good weather! A whole week of uninterrupted sunshine and balmy temperatures tuned Ireland and residents to holiday mode. Out came the sandals and the flowery dresses,the BBQs, the coconut lotions and, of course, the fake tans. The whole nation poured outdoors and rightly so! it has been a while since the last time we had seen Mister Sunshine in such glorious conditions.

Having moved to Dublin recently, I sure missed the long strands of County Wexford this week! We finally hit the beach on Sunday and chose to head out to Portmarnock mainly beacuse it was handy and accessible by public transport (driving to the beach on a sunny Sunday in Ireland is mission impossible). So far so good. The train was packed with teenagers high on hormones and sunshine. It was amusing enough but we chose to head to the middle of the beach to leave the crowds at either end. It was just pure heaven. That's what a Summer Sunday afternoon should be all about!

The far end of the beach, closer to the village, looked chockablock. But the most shocking part was seeing the amount of rubbish being scattered about the place, totally without a care or concern for people around, let alone the environment. A woman with her toddler and baby unwrapped her kid's icecream and proceed to bury the wrapper under the sand, not a worry in the world. Groups drinking cans on the grass were too busy having a good time to worry about binning their empty cans. Piles of empty glass and plastic bottles accummulated in the dunes, on the sand and the grass. Wrapping paper, leftover food and all sorts of litter dotted the place. Dogs were having a fun day at the beach too, but many owners chose to ignore their pets' poo, waiting for a bare foot to land on it. By 7 o'clock, once the tide was out and the main crowds had left, the vision was truly appalling.

It strikes me as strange that people are so keen to get out and make the most of the sunshine and the coast, while having no respect whatsoever for the space and the nature they've come to enjoy. Surely they'll expect to find the beach still there, clean and tidy next time they come... maybe we can put it to the side effects of sunshine, or call it mass national sunstroke... maybe we should just blame a lack of manners and of civil duty. And hope next time Mr Sunshine comes, we've all cooled down a bit and are more prepared to deal with our natural spaces responsibly.

Weather is due a change this week, rain will be back in Ireland. A bit of normality. I hope Summer does visit again this year.

Sunday in Clonegal

It is funny how you can have amazing places close to home and not even realise... it wasn't until I went to one of the #SMEcommunity meetings in Clonegal earlier this year that I discovered Huntington Castle. I had heard of the 'new age' witch living there but I hadn't realised you could go in to the castle or that there were tours to see the place. 

So taking the opportunity that the in-laws were visiting this weekend we went up to Clonegal (it is only about 25 min drive from Gorey) to spend our Sunday. Apart from the castle, Clonegal has another great 'attraction', restaurant Sha-Roe Bistro which is a lovely low key place with stunning top quality nosh!

The plan was to have a treat Sunday lunch at Sha-Roe and then head next door to the castle to check out the gardens (the last time I was there it was so wet I didn't get to see them) and have a tour of the place. The plan didn't disappoint, we hadn't been to Sha-Roe in a good while (why?? I don't know!) but it was as good or even better than I remembered. I had a smoked salmon terrine with haddock fishcake for starters and an absolutely superb courgette and cucumber risotto with scallops. I'm generally not a fan of risotto but this was no ordinary risotto, it was just amazingly tangy and tasty and everything you would need for a tasty Sunday treat! for dessert I had the classic lemon tart with raspberry sorbet which was sweet, refreshing and amazing. We must go more often! 

It was fun to have another tour of Huntington Castle because I got a different guide this time (I presume they are brothers) and we got different anecdotes from the castle's inhabitants and eccentric family residents. The castle was built in 1625 on the site of a 14th century abbey. It was built over a water well which still can be seen down in the basement, where the cult to the Goddess Isis has its 'Vatican' - as the guide said.

It is refreshing to go to a site that has been in the hands of the same family for centuries and see how the place has evolved, without artificial 'additives' solely for tourist consumption. It is a family house that happens to be a castle and have a very very colourful history! now they have opened tea rooms and they also have a resident artist studio, as well as a few crafts on sale.

For such a small place, Clonegal, gives you a good mix of things to do on a Sunday. Oh, and if you fancy walking, the Wicklow Way has its finishing spot here too!

Irish heritage and history in your pocket

My friend and archaeologist Neil Jackman has just launched this amazing project called Abarta Audio Guides. Neil and a group of friends with many different talents from music to acting have produced and launched these fantastic audio guides to 8 of Ireland's most high profile sites and events (Glendalough, 1916 Rising in Dublin, Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny Castle...).

The guides last up to 50 minutes in duration and they offer an interpretation of the sites and events with anecdotes and stories about these heritage sites. The greatest part? you can download it at home and take it with you, no need for queues or renting equipment at the sites. The Abarta team idea is to roll out to more sites in the coming months and develop apps with videos and other exciting things...

Since archaeology jobs are very scarce in Ireland these days, it is great to see the archaeologists still in Ireland come up with ideas to reinvent their talents. He has been working hard on this project for the past few years and I hope they do really really well. It is a fantastic idea and a handy way of taking Ireland's heritage and history in your pocket!

Go on! Check out the Abarta audio guides! you know you want to!

Bronze Age cooking - no Tin Foil in sight

It was my first time at the Wexford Food Festival this year. Despite being so close, I hadn't managed to do it last year. I was particularly curious to see the Bronze Age cooking demonstration: after spending three years digging fulacht fiadh around the country in the many commercial archaeological digs of the Celtic Tiger times I was definitely keen to see - and taste! - how it all worked!


So this year, we managed to head down to the Irish National Heritage Park with a couple of friends and have a bite of Bronze Age cooking! The weather was gorgeous so that was a bonus! and while we managed to miss the first demonstration and had to wait for the second round we were happy to go around and have a look (yet again) at the park. It is a great spot to take visitors, it gives them a chance to get a quick history of Ireland in the space of just over an hour! some parts of the park need a bit of work, and some other parts that we managed to see last year were closed this time around. It makes the visits slightly annoying because you never get to see the whole thing, but I suppose it is worth the wait and once all repair work is done it will be a fantastic attraction.

Anyway, back to the fulacht fiadh or burnt mound, it consists of a trough dug into the ground where hot stones (heated over a fire) were thrown and meat was cooked for what archaeologists suppose were special or big occasions for Bronze Age people (1500-500 BC). Why they didn't save themselves the hassle and cook directly on the fire, we'll never know! The fulacht fiadhs would have been reused though, leaving plenty of burnt stones scattered around the area for archaeologists to dig.

There are tons of fulacht fiadh around Ireland (Wikipedia says 4,500!), they are a pain to dig because of the huge extension of burnt material and stones that can cover a pretty significant surface and depth. But after digging them, it was great to taste a bit of meat cooked in one!

One of the ladies in front of me wasn't too impressed with the bacon being wrapped in hay and chucked into the murky water so asked the fulacht fiadh 'chef' if they (as in Bronze Age people) would have used tin foil! someone must go back to history classes!

Bacon wasn't enough to fill us up so we headed into town to check out the food stalls for some tasty treats!

Here's some info on fulatch fiadhs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulacht_fiadh

and a video from the Irish National Heritage Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Au52FD-sZYk

Third-time lucky Falafels

People get hooked on falafel after travelling to the most exotic places: Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey... I can't really point out the exact moment I got addicted to falafels. I have never been to the Middle East so it is quite possible it was in the middle of a bog in County Roscommon circa 2006.

third-time lucky falafels

What is this random Galician from Co. Wexford doing in the middle of a bog eating falafels? you might ask. Well, that is a question I have asked myself many times too. It was one of the first years of the Mantua music (and arts?) festival in Ballagahderreen. Yes, it was in a bog: soggy, wet and miserable (even though it was the middle of the summer). There was no toilets for half the duration of the festival and one of the few food options at the festival was, of course, falafel wraps.

I came home swearing I would never ever go to another festival again (if it's located in prime bog-location and it's raining) and never touch another chickpea. But I was wrong, at least in the second instance anyway. My temporary falafel overdose in boggy Roscommon seemed to have triggered a need for mushy chickpeas every now and then.

Then I was lucky enough to live close to the Gorey Farmers Market with Mohammed's best ever Lebanese style falafel wraps. Mohammed is now gone (to bigger markets) but the Gorey market has recently got a new 'falafel man', this time from Syria. And while I do miss Mohammed's falafels, the new ones are amazingly good as well.

In between Mohammed's departure and the new arrival, we had a few sad falafel-free months, so I tried to feed my addiction by DIYing it: The first time I used tinned chickpeas: too mushy. The second time I used dry chickpeas but without cooking them (I was following a recipe!): way too crunchy. And this week I have tried with dry chickpeas but boiling them for while.

They are the best I have done so far, hence the 'third-time lucky' name. I had tried to make them with a packet mix once but that doesn't count (and they were too mushy too, for your information). So here's the recipe:

Ideally, you would need a food processor to get a paste of the right consistency but I have combined some patient fork-squashing moves and a blender. Time consuming but hey, it is worth it.

With 500 gr of dry chickpeas you will make approximately 40 falafels (too much even for falafel freaks but I was only experimenting, remember). You will need to soak the chickpeas overnight. Note to myself: try doing about half of that amount next time.

I boiled the chickpeas for about 15/20 minutes, although some recipes suggest you can just use the food processor to get a coarse paste without boiling them.

I chopped a big onion, three garlic cloves, a bunch of fresh parsley, a bunch of fresh coriander and mixed with the chickpeas. Then I tried to blend it but I didn't want a very mushy consistency (it is up to you!) so I combined it with the 'highly advanced' fork-smashing technique ;-). Really, I need to buy a food processor for this type of thing.

I added about 3/4 teaspoons of ground cumin, one of chilli flakes (ground would work too), salt and two tablespoons of flour.

I mixed the paste well and rolled it into little falafel balls and put them in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil for about 30 minutes (shaking every so often so they go crispy all around).

We ate them with toasted pitta bread, lettuce, tomato, hummus and some yogurt (I grated some garlic into it). And it was a great success!

Next time I must try using a processor, just to get an even consistency.

I'll still keep going to get the 'pro' market falafels but this will do the job when I need to kill that falafel craving...

... and then the sun came out

Wild Wet Beara

Artists survey!

If you live in Ireland and paint, illustrate, design, do crafts... please share your thoughts with me on this survey!!

#IRLday get Ireland trending

On Monday 23rd May, US president Barack Obama is visiting Ireland. International media will be focusing on Ireland so it is the perfect opportunity to show the world all the great things the country has to offer. It is a chance to shine and get Ireland trending on the Twittersphere by using the #IRLday hashtag.
Whatever you are into, tweet about it: your favourite place in Ireland #irlplaces, your favourite Irish dish or food #irlfood, your local restaurant #irlrestaurants, an Irish song #irlsongs, writer, book, musician... anything at all that will help us make 23rd May Ireland Day!

And don’t forget to get your twibbon!

Here’s David Butt’s blog on what Irish restaurants and foodies should tweet about on #IRLday
http://irlday.org/2011/05/19/what-should-restaurants-tweet-about-on-irlday-contributed-by-david-butt /

Magic teapot

here's a picture of our teapot taken yesterday during breakfast, while enjoying the first taste of summer weather in Gorey, Co. Wexford.

Climbing Croagh Patrick

Mayo Mountain Rescue Team has advised for the first time that pilgrims climbing Croagh Patrick this weekend (Reek Sunday is this Sunday) should wear some shoes heading up the holy mountain, which is, by the way, quite a tough climb.

The first time I tried climbing it (just for fun, not for religious reasons) was two years ago and didn't even make it half way up. The mist started coming down, which combined with the crowds, the rocky path and the lack of decent walking shoes made the experience a bit of a nightmare. By the time we got to the B&B we were all soaking wet and miserably disappointed. Failed attempt.

Last year was a different story. Two factors helped the successful mission: it was an unusually glorious June bank holiday weekend and we took the road less travelled to finally reach the top (it had to be done at any cost!).

A great starting point is Westport Camping, where we were staying by chance. Just outside of Murrisk, this is a brilliant spot located at the foot of Croagh Patrick further, south from the official and crowded starting point. The camping place is cheap, friendly and just 5-10 min walk to the beach, which is definitely a bonus. Climbing from that side of the mountain was the best thing we could have ever done: no crowds, no painfully rocky paths (actually, no paths whatsoever!), no race to the top... it was just perfect, while still tiring. We had to dodge some bullocks on the way out from the camping area but sure, that just added to the wild off-piste feeling of the whole experience.

Reaching the top was a relief and a privilege, since they don't get may sunny and warm days like that in County Mayo - and the views of Clew Bay and its little islands on a clear day are just amazing - and totally worth the climb.

Heading back down the usual crowded path felt like a triumph, having at last climbed the holy mountain of Ireland - and having managed to avoid the crowds.

Still, a speedy barefoot woman in her 70s overtaking me on the way down left me thinking for a few days ... I really hope she is wearing some shoes this year.

5 Restaurants worth a visit in Ireland

Tried and tested.
In no particular order:

-Sha Roe Bistro (Clonegal, Co. Wexford/Carlow border)
-The Wicklow Heather (Laragh, Co. Wicklow)
-The Oar House (Howth, Co. Dublin)
-Co-op cafe (Cork city)
-The Tavern pub and restaurant (Murrisk, Co. Mayo)

Valentine's Day is overrated …

Valentine’s Day is overrated but it is definitely a good excuse to get out and do something with your weekend. These are some options worth considering:

1-No man is an island.

Remote and beautiful are the best way to describe places such as Inishbofin and the Aran Islands. http://www.irelandsislands.com/ lists all the islands off the coast of Ireland, making ‘choosing’ your island extremely easy. It has an interactive map with a comprehensive list of resources, allowing you to search for accommodation and services, check sailing times and activities available in each of the islands.

2-City lights- Dublin and Cork.

Dublin and Cork offer a great range of activities all year round from theatre to concerts, great cosy cafes and excellent restaurants. Those things us townies miss from our daily mucky lives. For cinema lovers: Dublin hosts the Jameson International Film Festival from the 12th until the 22nd of February. Cork doesn’t even need an excuse. Give me Cork any time. The Kino cinema has art house movies as good as those in any film festival, without the queues for the tickets and the ‘book well in advance’ warning.

3-Walking.

The weather this year might not be ideal to go exploring places like Carraontouil or The Spink but walking is A/ good for you and B/ it will open your apetite for dinner time.

http://www.walkireland.ie/ has a search engine with a range of walking trails in Ireland for walkers of all levels. For a more relaxed outdoor Valentine, Altamont Gardens, just outside Tullow, in County Carlow, celebrate their Snowdrop Week from 9th February until 15th February.

IN SHORT

-Best of Valentine’s Day: Eating out.

-Worst of Valentine’s Day: Cheesy cards with stale declarations of love such as ‘The key to my heart’ and ‘You are the one I love’.

Snowing in Gorey - Co. Wexford